Dick Clark

Kevork Djansezian/Associated Press

Dick Clark was the perpetually youthful-looking television host whose long-running daytime song-and-dance fest, “American Bandstand,” did as much as anyone or anything to advance the influence of teenagers and rock ’n’ roll on American culture.

Mr. Clark died on April 18, 2012 in Santa Monica, Calif., at the age of 82.

Mr. Clark had a well-publicized stroke in December 2004, shortly before he was to appear on the annual televised New Year’s Eve party he had produced and hosted every year since 1973. He returned a year later, and although he spoke haltingly, he continued to make brief appearances on the show, including the one just months before his death.

With the boyish good looks of a bound-for-success junior executive and a ubiquitous on-camera presence, Mr. Clark was among the most recognizable faces in the world, even if what he was most famous for — spinning records and jabbering with teenagers — was on the insubstantial side. In addition to “American Bandstand” and “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” he hosted innumerable awards shows, comedy specials, series based on TV outtakes and the game show $10,000 Pyramid” (which lasted long enough to see the stakes ratcheted up to $100,000). He also made guest appearances on dramatic and comedy series, usually playing himself.

Starting in the 1960s, Mr. Clark built an entertainment empire on the shoulders of “Bandstand,” producing other music shows like “Where the Action Is” and “It’s Happening” and eventually expanding into game shows, awards shows, comedy specials and series, talk shows, children’s programming, reality programming, and movies. His umbrella company, Dick Clark Productions, has produced thousands of hours of television; it also has a licensing arm and has owned or operated restaurants and theaters like the Dick Clark American Bandstand Theater in Branson, Mo.

But none of it would have been possible without “American Bandstand,” a show that earned immediate popularity and had astonishing longevity. It was broadcast nationally (and for several years daily) from 1957 to 1989, and the list of well-known performers who were seen on it (many of them lip-synching their recently recorded hits) spanned generations: from Ritchie Valens to Luther Vandross; from the Monkees to Madonna; from Little Anthony and the Imperials to Los Lobos; from Dusty Springfield to Buffalo Springfield to Rick Springfield. Mr. Clark was around for it all.

Background

Richard Wagstaff Clark was born on Nov. 30, 1929, in Bronxville, N.Y., and grew up in nearby Mount Vernon. His father, Richard Augustus Clark, was a salesman who commuted to New York City until he was hired to manage a radio station in Utica, N.Y. Young Richard’s older brother, Bradley, was killed in World War II.

As a boy he listened often to the radio, and at 13 he went to see a live radio broadcast starring Jimmy Durante and Garry Moore. From then on, he wanted to be in broadcasting. His first job, at 17, was in the mailroom of his father’s station.

Mr. Clark studied business administration at Syracuse University, where he was a disc jockey on the student radio station, and after graduating worked briefly as an announcer for his father’s station before getting his first job in television, at WKTV in Utica, as a news announcer.

Mr. Clark won five Emmy Awards, including a Daytime Emmy lifetime achievement award in 1994, and in 1993 was inducted into both the Television Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

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